Directive 2005/32/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (repealed)Show full title

ANNEX II Method for setting specific ecodesign requirements(referred to in Article 15)

Specific ecodesign requirements aim at improving a selected environmental aspect of the product. They may take the form of requirements for reduced consumption of a given resource, such as a limit on the use of a resource in the various stages of an EuP's life cycle, as appropriate (such as a limit on water consumption in the use phase or on the quantities of a given material incorporated in the product or a requirement for minimum quantities of recycled material).

In preparing implementing measures laying down specific ecodesign requirements pursuant to Article 15, the Commission will identify, as appropriate to the EuP covered by the implementing measure, the relevant ecodesign parameters from among those referred to in Annex I, Part 1, and set the levels of these requirements, in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 19(2), as follows:

1.

A technical, environmental and economic analysis will select a number of representative models of the EuP in question on the market and identify the technical options for improving the environmental performance of the product, keeping sight of the economic viability of the options and avoiding any significant loss of performance or of usefulness for consumers.

The technical, environmental and economic analysis will also identify, for the environmental aspects under consideration, the best-performing products and technology available on the market.

The performance of products available on international markets and benchmarks set in other countries' legislation should be taken into consideration during the analysis as well as when setting requirements.

On the basis of this analysis and taking into account economic and technical feasibility as well as potential for improvement, concrete measures are taken with a view to minimising the product's environmental impact.

Concerning energy consumption in use, the level of energy efficiency or consumption will be set aiming at the life-cycle cost minimum to end-users for representative EuP models, taking into account the consequences on other environmental aspects. The life-cycle cost analysis method uses a real discount rate on the basis of data provided from the European Central Bank and a realistic lifetime for the EuP; it is based on the sum of the variations in purchase price (resulting from the variations in industrial costs) and in operating expenses, which result from the different levels of technical improvement options, discounted over the lifetime of the representative EuP models considered. The operating expenses cover primarily energy consumption and additional expenses in other resources (such as water or detergent).

A sensitivity analysis covering the relevant factors (such as the price of energy or other resource, the cost of raw materials or production costs, discount rates) and, where appropriate, external environmental costs, including avoided greenhouse gas emissions, will be carried out to check if there are significant changes and if the overall conclusions are reliable. The requirement will be adapted accordingly.

A similar methodology could be applied to other resources such as water.

2.

For the development of the technical, environmental and economic analyses, information available in the framework of other Community activities could be used.

The same applies for information available from existing programmes applied in other parts of the world for setting the specific ecodesign requirement of EuPs traded with the EU's economic partners.

3.

The date of entry into force of the requirement will take the redesign cycle for the product into account.